The frame detail shown above is is another frame example from The online Collection of The Yale Center for British Art. When I saw this frame I was delighted to find yet another early example of Acanthus pattern on the sight edge. However it is only this morning when I looked at one of the enlarged detail photographs that I really began to think that none of this is happening by accident. When I rotated the picture I discovered a sight that made me think the people at Yale must have taken this picture expressly with me in mind. I show it below in its original form only rotated 90 degrees counter clockwise, here we see, perfectly centered ,a section of Acanthus pattern exactly as I have been showing them in the past few pages.

Looking closely at the Acanthus motif in this Louis XIII example it dawned on me that the archetype I was looking for was just the Acanthus motif itself, the alternating pattern could be with other motifs yet the acanthus remained as the unchanging central part, here in this example it appears to be acanthus with a leaf tip, instead of the flower or bud.

Acanthus Archetype c.1650 - Louis XIII frame, sight edge frieze

Enlarged Louis XIII frame detail, this image is from The Yale Center for British Art.

The Louis XIII frames are easily recognized from the Louis XIV and Louis XV frames, here we have a simple arrangement of a large outer frieze and a much smaller frieze on the sight with a border of interlacing ribbon described by Yale as a guilloche however this would seem incorrect. The main frieze is also composed of acanthus (alternating with palm) and we could spend days or weeks or months researching this as well. The carver of this frame appears to be truly gifted. There is about this work a certain gracefulness thats defies description.